Marvel Heroes 2015

Marvel Heroes brings several famous superheroes together in one MMO. Choose your hero from a long list of heroes spanning several Marvel lines such as The Avengers, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and many others. Each hero has a variety of costumes to choose from, going back across Marvel’s entire history. Play alone, or join up with friends in randomly generated environments and explore famous locations like Mutant Town, the Savage Land, and Avengers Tower.

Pros: + Diverse cast of Marvel Super Heroes to choose from/team up with. + Storyline that fits the Marvel Universe; easy for fans and new people to the comics to get into. + Wide variety of activities to get involved with; the game does not end at the end of the story.

Cons: - Lots of microtransactions; not required, but can make the game faster. – Heroes can be acquired for free, but requires a fair amount of play time. – Seeing ten Hulks on the screen at the same time can break suspension of disbelief.

Marvel Heroes Overview

Marvel Heroes gives you the chance to play as one of your favorite Marvel Comics superheroes. The game plays much like action RPGs like Diablo, except with a persistent MMO world. Each character has a variety of costumes to choose from, letting people playing the same hero look slightly different. Areas are randomly generated, ensuring that adventures will always be different. Various abilities and equipment will be available for you to obtain, to help further customize each hero.

Marvel Heroes Screenshots

Marvel Heroes Featured Video

Marvel Heroes – First Look

Full Review

Marvel Heroes Review

Marvel Heroes: First Year Anniversary Review By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Doom Does As He Pleases!

Ever since I was wee little, I have been a humongous fan of comics, Marvel in particular. X-Men, X-Factor, West Coast Avengers, Spider-Man and a variety of others filled my collection. They still do, for the most part. I participated in the closed beta for Marvel Heroes, and while I loved the concept, there was just something missing, other than more heroes. The game just felt empty, despite the host of people that also participated. As the game opened, while there were things to do, and lots of people were always logged in running groups and beating up bad guys; I still intensely disliked seeing the same heroes in packs. Nothing is as jarring as seeing six Spider-Men flying across my screen.

When I first heard about the title, I was flying high off of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and was hoping to see a game similar to it. The gameplay does feel similar as does the look, but I admit, I’m still a little unhappy seeing so many of the same character in each screen, but that is okay. That does not detract from how enjoyable the game is from then. When the game began, there were only a handful of “starting” heroes that you could pick from: Daredevil, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch (my starter), Storm, and Thing. This roster of starting characters has grown since, to the chagrin of some, but not to me. Even though my initial starting list was smaller, the folks at Gazillion obviously recognized that as time progressed, the larger pool of starting characters would draw more people to try their work.

A year has passed, and many changes have come to Marvel Heroes, now labeled Marvel Heroes 2015. In addition to the above characters, the following have been added to the starting roster: Captain America, Punisher, Black Panther, Colossus, Black Widow, Human Torch, and Luke Cage. One of the most important things to consider about this game is “Has it stood the test of time?” Has it improved as an MMO, or only gotten worse as the year has gone on?

I would like to say the game has gotten leaps and bounds better than it was at the start. When the game began, I lost interest very fast. With the ability to acquire heroes primarily requiring money, I was not certain that I was willing to spend my funds on it, as I already had an MMO or two I was putting money into. Shards of Eternity, the currency for purchasing characters, drop at a decent rate in game. I will grant it requires a decent amount of farming, but if you are only purchasing one hero or so with money, they are not terribly expensive. I look at it akin to a subscription, if I only bought one a month, it would not bad. If one is enjoying a game, it is not so bad to spend a little money on it, especially if it is free.

One of the pleasant things about this game is it is not class-based. Each superhero is its own “class.” Each character has three sets of talent trees that they have access to, in addition to a “Super” power that has its own timer or cooldown, depending on the character. The Hulk and Thing, for example, are very tanky, whereas Cyclops, the Punisher, and Doctor Strange are ranged nuker/dps. Wolverine, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Luke Cage are more brawlers, up-close melee dps. There is something for any type of player. Gazillion is always working on new content, so expect even more heroes to show up as the game progresses. The original release of the game was uninspiring to say the least, and Gazillion listened to their critics, cracking down and working hard to produce something fantastic.

Introduction into Saving the Day:

The story is not for everyone, I suppose; but there are more comic fans than ever before, thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movies that gross millions of dollars and introduce people to comics in a venue that has never been as successful as now. In Marvel Heroes, the primary story consists of Dr. Doom, the Latverian Scientist acquiring an artifact of limitless power, the Cosmic Cube. The brunt of the story is your hero performing good deeds, and pummeling bad guys while keeping on the trail of the evildoers that are working to enslave or destroy humanity. Your hero choice has no bearing on the main story, and the cut scenes with their voice acting really feel like a comic with fantastic sounds and music to go with them. The story is set in chapters, with instances and large maps to explore. As your character progresses and gains experience, it increases in level, where you can spend skill points and pick up new equipment like most MMOs.

Your hero trudges through abandoned subways, clubs, Dr. Doom’s castle, and can even cross the Bifrost bridge and head to the land of Odin, Loki and Thor: Asgard. Like any solid MMO, there are more things to do than simply plunge headfirst into the story. Most of the game takes place through Avengers Tower, formerly Stark Tower, home of Iron Man/Tony Stark. From there you are transported to the various locales that you will explore. At the release of the game, there were only a few things activities available: two terminals, which are essentially challenges that players can try, and the normal story mode. However, now there are a whopping nine game modes! They now include X-Defense (Defending the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters), S.H.I.E.L.D. Holo-Sim (Endless Dungeon), Midtown (save citizens and punish super villains), One-Shots (Single shot missions), and Heroic/Superheroic Story (increased challenge in the normal story).

There is always something to do and see in the world of Marvel Heroes. You can join a guild or supergroup and run raids and dungeons similar to bigger MMOs like World of Warcraft. You can now pick up one of a few super-hero teamups, an NPC that joins you on your journey and helps you in fights, which includes the likes of Spider-Man, Magik, Falcon, and Firestar. Marvel Heroes 2015 is essentially an all-new game. To celebrate, there was a free-gift handout to all players. By a certain point, if players have a character at level 30, they could receive a host of free gifts, such as costumes, characters, bonuses, items to increase xp/rare drops/et cetera. There are always events and special things happening in game; holidays always have a cool or interesting event to go along with them to draw players in, and occasionally the devs offer free gifts to the players as a thank you for simply being around. So much has improved and changed in the game that it would take more than this simple article to go into. Instead of eight equipment slots, there are now nineteen! Slots for a ring, a legendary slot, insignia, Team-Up items, relics of various mythical factions and more. My Cyclops is decked in uniques and legendaries, which increase skills and stats in a host of ways.

Clunky Like a Crossover:

Marvel has a habit of making very hard to follow, clunky cross-over stories that require a lot of extra reading and attention. This is a way to make money, and to tell a story over a broad expanse of comic titles. This feels like what is going on in Marvel Heroes 2015. There are a ton of new things and additions to Marvel Heroes and it can become overwhelming quickly. More often than not, I had more loot than I knew what to do with, most of it being pretty worthless once I found some legendary/uniques. There were times when there was simply no way to hold all of the stuff I had attained, and most of it I would never use again. And the things I might use for other characters that I own, I might not have space for in my bank. In a way, I feel this is a trap to spend real money to purchase banks slots, but realistically, I do not think this is the case. While I appreciate that there is a ton of new stuff in the game, I feel that perhaps it could be a bit too overwhelming for someone just trying to enjoy a super-hero game. Blessings, Runewords, Enchantments, Legendary Quests, Cosmic Terminal, Asgard and Bovenheim, and even more than this!

Of course, there are items that can be purchased for those of you who want a different look, such as new costumes for your heroes. You do not have to buy them, but there are far more than there ever were before. At the start, there were, at most, two different styles per character. Now the average is nine! There are some truly fantastic ones: throwbacks to movies; old storylines and teams, such as “Joe Fixit”; a version of the Incredible Hulk; Symbiote Spider Man, the black suit that became Venom; and Freedom Foundation Thing. There are so many new systems and additions that I find myself unsure of what to do or where to go when I log in sometimes. Here is just a taste of some of the new systems and additions one can look forward to in Marvel Heroes 2015:

Relics: There are a host of relics of differing factions in the Marvel Universe. They take up a slot on your character such as your helmet, chest, boots, et cetera. What makes these interesting is despite their uncommon drop, they stack up to 999 in that slot of the same type. Each relic offers a particular type of stat boost, like +1 health, and another stat such as crit damage, movement speed, thorns (deals damage when hit), and an assortment of other stat boosts. It might take some time to farm or trade them up to a decent amount, but the dedication can be very rewarding.

Cosmic Terminal: The terminal missions at level 60 have a “Cosmic” version. All of the enemies are level 63 and all of the loot you find is level 60. The chances of the equipment being of the cosmic variety are higher, and cosmic-level medallions drop more frequently off of the Supervillains you fight. However, cube shards (dropped from daily green/red missions, once a day, traded for fortune cards) are not dropped here. These Cosmic terminals will be more important in an event later this year.

Synergy System: Each character has a particular benefit that they can apply to all of the other characters on your account, at level 30 and level 50. For example, Cyclops has one of the potentially most useful, with his level 50 boost, 10% additional experience points. His son, Cable offers a total of 2% critical chance at level 50, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Dedicated fans can always find something to do in Marvel Heroes. There are more options and things to try than many MMOS that require a payment subscription. Sure, there are items worth purchasing; you might not want to grind out Jean Grey, and might choose to purchase her, and use her to unlock other characters the old fashioned way. You might decide you want Colossus’ Juggernaut costume, because it’s very easy on the eyes, or one of Emma Frost’s. But you do not have to, by any means. There is nothing that has to be purchased for someone to enjoy this game, but it might make it a little bit faster to find the hero that is right for you. Everyone is good, but of course, some are just better at their job than others. I found the fastest hero for me to level was Cyclops, not just because he’s one of my favorites. His “Optic Ricochet” is fantastic for clearing a ton of enemies at one time, and I developed a build that let me enjoy that and his passive bonus exp boost.

To Be Continued: 4/5

I have to re-emphasize, looking at the game with fresh eyes from now and looking back at the Beta/Opening, it feels like an all-new game. I can see where Gazillion is trying very hard to create a product that really reflects the Marvel Brand. There are little snippets of dialogue between characters that are close to each other that make me chuckle; doing battle with the Sinister Six downtown is always a blast. I could be entertained running around destroying Sentinels, and defeating the Brood. As a comic book fan, I must say it is worth at least a try. I will say the story ends on a kind of weird note, but I do believe it is being written or developed to continue onwards. While it is a very bulky product with the new additions to the game, I do not necessarily feel like this is a bad thing. Marvel Heroes is easily the premiere Action MMO on the market, and out of the free-to-play I would put it on top without a second thought.

Graphics: 5/5

While the mostly overhead view can make the characters look small, you can zoom in and really see the details that the developers put into their character design. The cutscenes feel like I’m watching an animated comic, and there are tons of little things that really make me feel like Gazillion are either fans of Marvel, or hired people who are. Every character looks unique, and the backdrops of famous locales in the Marvel Universe are very true to their original design.

Controls: 4/5

There is not a lot to say about the controls. They are pretty standard ARPG controls. I will admit that sometimes movement when there are a lot of enemies and allies on screen can be difficult, and clicking on the screen will not always move your character. There are times when it will just stand there, or attack something you did not intend to strike at. Otherwise the controls are very solid, though I would love to see controller support, to feel more like Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Features/Gameplay: 3/5

While I love that there are more features than ever before in Marvel Heroes 2015, there are perhaps too many. I feel like they overdid the features and it really can bog down an otherwise enjoyable game. The gameplay itself is great, though, and everything is crisp and enjoyable, the story is fun and the action is nonstop. I cannot think of a time where I had nothing to do in game.

Music/Sound: 4/5

The sounds and sensations of the Marvel Universe are great. The characters all sound more or less what I thought they would/should, and every important character has a voice actor. Spider-Man sounds suitably snarky and humorous, Captain America’s voice drips of stoicism and duty. The clanking of Sentinel’s humongous bodies landing on concrete to the cackling laughter of the Green Goblin, it all feels genuine and sincere. I could really just wander areas to listen to character interaction, and have in fact, found myself doing so with a variety of heroes.

Marvel Heroes – Full Review

By Taylor Lux

Marvel Heroes is an action role-play MMO with hack and slash emphasis. It was released on June 4, 2013 by Gazillion Entertainment. The overall play style is remarkably similar to that of Diablo series of the late 90s/early 2000’s. The camera is mostly fixed, only being able to zoom in and out on top of your character. Moving is restricted to mouse left-clicks which, problematically, is also used for attacks. When attempting to dodge an obliterating attack, accidentally clicking on an enemy can be devastating. The mouse also uses the right click for a secondary attack, with other skills assigned to the A, S, D, F, G, and H keys on your keyboard for more variety of hot keyed abilities.

Assembling the Team… and Their Outfits
When you start the game for the first time, you get to select between 5 Marvel heroes: Daredevil, Storm, Hawkeye, Thing, or Scarlet Witch. All the other heroes and costumes can be unlocked through one of two methods: very rare drops or through purchases in their micro transaction store. You are given, via story, another character after the first time you complete the prologue and finish the main story the first time. Each character has several costumes that can be found or bought and the company plans on expanding the roster of heroes available to players as time passes. Current characters that can be played are Wolverine, Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, Cyclops, Black Panther, among others. Already planned to release in the near future are Emma Frost, Human Torch, and Nova. Each character has three different skill trees that they can learn abilities from each level or improve already learned abilities.

Why the Heroes Are Doing This
The missions are told through the typical MMO character text box fashion; however, the main story is told through a series of motion comic cut scenes. The quality of the cut scenes is good for a motion comic; however, the overall graphics for typical game play and the cut scenes don’t seem to warrant the amount of processing power that my computer was using. Other games I have played were much better on the detail or simply ran much smoother with equal graphics as Marvel Heroes. The graphics really weren’t much to write about comparatively to other games. The motion comics did keep the main plot going, even if you skipped every other mission or text box that was given to you, there was little question as to what was going on there.

Those that the Heroes Opposed
As it’s stated so blatantly in the opening cinematic, Doctor Doom is using some sort of cube to do something to the world. There’s plenty of other Marvel villains scattered throughout Marvel Heroes, each having new and interesting abilities that the players have to work around or get squashed by Rhino’s charge, Elektra’s ninja skills, or some of the Brotherhood’s infamous members such as Blob and Pyro. It is highly encouraged, especially in the free for all zones, to have multiple heroes to take on the villains or prepare for a long, and probable failed attempt at taking them on. The battles are fairly epic in that it takes teamwork in order to obtain victory, but some of the villains seem to take forever to finally be taken down. I’m looking at you Venom and your constant running about the docks.

Where Heroes Are Made
Zones are basically set into 4 major segments per chapter of the main story. The first zone of each chapter is a generic catch all area, where all your venders are, storage, and PvP and challenges can be accepted. The missions accepted here will send you to your second type of zone, which is a free for all area where everyone is in the same area. One of the major problems with these free for all zones is the spawn rates and mob sizes are almost unwieldy, especially if you happen to be under level or simply take too long on a mob because they are usually 3-9 minions per mob and they seem to respawn right after you step away if you have decent AoE or level. There is the plus that another player could step in behind you and help defeat your mob, which drastically helps out the mob size problem. Each free for all zone typically has very strong boss battles or area events like stopping a sentinel attack or protecting people from being assassinated. If you participate in the event, you can talk with a contact and gain some extra XP for your troubles, and since it’s a free for all zone, anyone can help you accomplish the mission.

Each free for all zone typically branches into either another free for all zone or one of two instanced maps. The first instanced map has an orange door and usually has 2 mobs, one regular and one which includes a lieutenant, a treasure chest, and nothing else. The second is typically your story instances where your missions and the main story continues and have blue doors. These typically have special bosses at the end of them. It is usually encouraged to have a group (which caps out at 5 people) for these instances, but the game automatically places you in a party if you have it selected in your options for it to do so.

To the Victor Goes the Spoils
Ah loot. Who doesn’t love it? So with the notoriously high amount of minor enhanced equipment that is constantly dropping, what are you going to do with it? Well, if it’s almost any other game, your response will be to sell it for money. However, Marvel Heroes offered an alternative to the constantly selling your equipment for the local currency with donating equipment to venders to level them up and gain new recipes on the crafters and a larger selection of items for the other venders. It’s designed so that it’s even more convenient for players that any vender of a particular type all share the same level and progress, this is even further spread because it’s granted to all characters. For example, if you level Forge to 4 on Storm, then switch to Thor and go see Hank Pym, another crafter vender, then Hank will be level 4 as well. It is also worthwhile to note that all characters share the same inventory, both on hand and storage. It’s part blessing, part curse. However, an advanced craft vender allows you to upgrade rare (blue) to epic (purple) equipment and can also allow you to transform epic equipment for another character into something your character can use. That’s something I was very excited about and impressed with when I figured it out.

Finally finishing the main story of the game unlocks several modes of game play for you as well. There are daily missions and challenges, along with pvp accessibility. For those interested in having the full access to these functions before the main storyline will be disappointed, but there is hope in some sort of task to do post story completion besides running the same missions over and over again either on the same characters or changing to newly found or purchased characters.

Verdict: Okay
The play style of the game feels stuck in the late 1990s since it has a high comparison with Diablo 1 and 2. The restriction of characters outside of purchasing them might keep those who don’t want to spend money but have a completion attitude towards games might enjoy the hunt for characters and costumes; however, I find it mostly a nuisance unless the character you want to play is one of the first characters. The boss battles seem a bit drawn out, but somewhat cool in that it’s a major villain that you’re fighting instead of some nameless thug. The free for all zones have their own major headaches with quick spawning large mobs while the instanced story maps are fine up until the final bosses where trouble can brew once more if attempting to solo them. However, the leveling up venders was a pleasant surprise for me and gave you something to do with the very typical white or green trash equipment that’s constantly tossed in your direction instead of it simply being more cash flow. To me, this is a mediocre game for the general gamer, but for the Marvel diehard fans this game will be decent enough to be both enjoyable and playable for them.

Marvel Heroes Beta Preview

Beta Preview by: Anthny D’Urbano aka SqueezyTime

To say that I was ecstatic about having the opportunity to check out Marvel Heroes would be a massive understatement. Being a huge Diablo & Diablo II fan, as well as a huge superhero fan, finding out about Diablo’s signature gameplay joining the Marvel universe in a big parfait of awesomeness was probably the most exciting news I have gotten all year. Though I am always skeptical of new action-RPGs, as they rarely can live up to the legacy of Diablo, upon entering Marvel Heroes I was delightfully welcomed by a familiar feeling that brought me right back to my Diablo days.

I jumped into the game with my first hero, Black Panther, and began navigating the chaotic scenery of The Raft super-villain prison as it was being utterly demolished by escaping prisoners. The gameplay was very easy to step into, consisting of mainly left-click spamming with the occasional right-click to dish out the heavy hits. This basic action-RPG combat style might seem basic to some, but I found it to be very effective. The Panther, turning out to be a more acrobatic/rogue-like character, didn’t much suit my style but my attention was quickly turned towards the scenery and the atmosphere. Everything was very action-packed, running through the burning prison with fire, explosions and collapsing debris galore, all the while fighting my way through several groups of enemy soldiers. The scene was complemented by an awesome musical track and was overall exciting.

The next chapter of the game took place in Daredevil’s territory, Hell’s Kitchen, where an entirely new experience was introduced. The map spanned a dark, open city overrun with various gangsters and thugs. The difference in this new area was not only the openness of the map, but the mood was much more relaxed, with low hip-hop beats in the background, and yet the city was livelier in its own way. As I wandered around the area I ran into scenes of police officers apprehending citizens or having small battles with the local ruffians. One of the most enjoyable events I encountered was the appearance of Electro, a randomly spawning group/raid boss. This is where the Marvel Heroes was the most fun for me. Getting together with a whole mass of superheroes to take down a large boss was not only exciting, but it looked rather amazing. Between Electro’s lighting attacks and the combination of various heroes’ abilities, the night was lit up with all different shapes and colors. It was like a rave, with one hundred percent more awesome.

My defeat of Electro was rewarded with a nice explosion of loot, which I gleefully scrambled to collect off the street, because every battle is way more fulfilling when there is epic gear to show for it. Having seen that I had acquired several pieces of gear meant for other heroes, I decided to hit the shop and check some of them out. Once I picked out the heroes I wanted, switching between them was done by simply opening up the roster menu and selecting one. There was no logging out of the game or out to a character selection screen, heroes could be freely changed out on the fly. Each hero had a fairly unique playstyle. Daredevil had his dual sword/dual pistol combo, fluidly combining both melee and ranged attacks, Iron Man combined a barrage of explosions with a strong defense system, and Hulk (probably the most hilariously fun of them all) hit things very, very hard. Though I loved Daredevil’s fluidity, Hulk had this feel of destructiveness that I really had a lot of fun with. I could take out groups of enemies with an explosive ground smash or even pick up nearby cars and throw them at people.

Despite my giddy schoolgirl demeanor, Marvel Heroes did have a few elements that I disliked. My original fear with the game was that, given that there was no unique character creation, there would be several instances of the same exact superheroes on the screen when in public areas. There were, and I found it to be just a little bit awkward. Though, being able to play as one of Marvel’s iconic heroes was terrific, not being able to create a superhero of my own was disappointing. This lack of customization was offset by an array of costumes for each superhero, available in the cash shop, but that didn’t make it any less known that the Deadpool in a pirate costume was still the same Deadpool as the one in original uniform next to him. That aside, some of the costumes were pretty entertaining, such as Deadpool’s pirate costume or Hulk’s big grey beard. I was equally disappointed in the game when I saw that acquiring a second, and third, etc. superhero was only allowed via payment in the cash shop, as well as there being several heroes that were exclusive to the cash shop. This feature is likely to put a lot of pressure on non-paying players, as they’ll have little room to play around with when choosing their heroes.

My overall experience with Marvel Heroes was fun, exciting and a little nostalgic. I had a blast with every hero’s unique playstyle, and was entertained even by simply wandering around and killing enemies for no reason other than I hate them. The addition of destructible objects (cars, barrels, etc.) that could be thrown at enemies, or simply destroyed for the sake of destroying things made the experience all the better. Despite the single player feel that the game had at times, it was very multiplayer-centric. The most fun I had in Marvel Heroes was joining nearby players in the battle against Electro. Each chapter I played followed through with a strong atmosphere, making each area unique and believable. Throughout my playthrough there was an underlying Diablo feel that brought me back to the games that got me into action-RPGs years ago. The feeling was warming, and even re-sparked my interest in going back to playing my Sorceress in Diablo II.

Even with the lack of character customization and the cash shop centered character selection, each hero had their own unique playstyle, and I could easily see myself dropping some cash regularly to add new heroes to my roster in the future.

Marvel Heroes: First Year Anniversary Review - Posted on June 17, 2014While original release of Marvel Heroes was uninspiring to say the least, Gazillion listened to their critics, cracking down and working hard to produce something fantastic.

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